Former House Speaker Newt Gingrich (R-Ga.) ranted Thursday that a Julia Roberts-narrated ad assuring women that they can vote discreetly is “sick.” (Watch the videos below.)
Gingrich claimed the message was symptomatic of Democrats’ amorality. “And the more you watch them, to say, ‘Oh, why don’t you lie to your husband?’ as a publicly advocated ad? That is sick!” he told Fox News’ Sean Hannity. “And I think we ought to have the courage to say this is a sick, dishonest party.”
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Only that is not the message of Vote Common Good’s online entry. The video encourages women not to cave to domestic intimidation ― subtle or otherwise ― and to vote their conscience.
In the clip, two women share knowing looks at a polling place as one tallies her ballot in favor of Kamala Harris. “Did you make the right choice?” a male companion in a U.S. flag-branded cap asks the woman. “Sure did, honey!” she responds.
“In the one place in America where women still have a right to choose, you can vote any way you want and no one will ever know,” narrates the Oscar-winning actor.
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Prompted by Hannity, Gingrich went off on the ad.
“These people are dishonest,” he said. “And so, for them to tell people to lie is just one further example of the depth of their corruption. I mean, how do you run a country where you’re walking around saying, ‘Wives should lie to their husbands, husbands should lie to their wives’?”
“I mean, what kind of a totally amoral, corrupt, sick system have the Democrats developed?” he prattled on. “If you think about it at that level, it is astonishing, the decay.”
Gingrich continued his diatribe about the video, which has triggered other conservatives such as Fox News’ Jesse Watters.
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“Instead of having dignity and patriotism and a sense of morality, these are really sick people,” Gingrich said.
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Mediaite also pointed out the hypocrisy of Gingrich’s outrage, given his reportedly dishonest behavior toward his second wife, whom he divorced after an affair with the woman who would become his third wife.
“How could he ask me for a divorce on Monday and within 48 hours give a speech on family values and talk about how people treat people?” Marianne Gingrich said in 2012 of her ex-husband revealing his affair.